23 September 2009
New Lutheran Quote of the Day
Finally, churches must help Christians plumb the heights and depths of their lives in a world increasingly flattened into one dimension. It is essential that churches offer worship services that are a "foretaste of the feast to come." They must do all they can to provide a worship life that includes the transcendent. Fine music, liturgical excellence, robust singing, and beautiful sights, sounds, and even smells are essential to such worship. -- Robert Benne (Reasonable Ethics, cited on p. 2139 of TLSB)
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2 comments:
Pr Weedon, Don't you think there is a danger here? Haven't the churches sometimes promoted high art and music at the expense of theological truth? Isn't it via Word and Sacrament that we are taken into heavenly places?
Stephen,
Benne is not suggesting promoting high art and music at the expense of theological truth; but bringing such into the service of theological truth. It is because the Word and Sacraments bring us the gift of a heavenly kingdom that we seek to express the presence of that kingdom as best we may in reverent music and art.
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